Spring Cleaning: Want Not? Waste Not. Rummage Sales for the Community, the Chapter, and Unborn Lives.(Brief Article)

With Mother?s Day, Memorial Day Weekend, and graduations upon us, late spring is in full swing. Everywhere, and every weekend, our neighborhoods seem decked out with brightly colored signs advertising ?Yard Sales,? ?Garage Sales,? and ?Moving Sales.? Since bargain hunters, antique collectors, and frugal folks are out looking for steals and deals, these sales present pro-lifers with a few opportunities to make a difference for life.

Sometimes chapters hold rummage sales in the spring as a fundraiser for the chapter and a service to its members. Chances are good that your members? families are in the process of cleaning out their basements, attics, and garages and dispensing of items they no longer use or need. Collect these items from your members and hold a rummage sale with the proceeds going to the lifesaving work of the chapter.

Many chapters hold these sales to fund a particular project, like a billboard, fetal model set, newspaper ad, or registration to the National Right to Life Convention for its leaders. By specifying how the funds raised will be used, chapter members and the community at large have a tangible goal to work toward and verifiable results in which they can be proud.

A variation on the rummage sale might be to hold a book sale. Everyone has books they no longer read or need.

There is no need to price individual books--sell hardcovers for $2 and paperbacks for $1. Make sure you have adequate space so people have room to browse before buying. And make sure the books are good ones--such as the ones your high school and college kids no longer read.

For either sale, advertise heavily in local pro-life churches. Depending on the amount of pro-life sentiment in your community, you may or may not want to advertise in the local newspaper that the sale will benefit your right-to-life chapter.

If you are browsing rummage sales yourself, Marie Petranich of Brooklyn, New York, has set a great example for you. Petranich approaches sellers with a brochure for the local pro-life pregnancy center and asks them to donate any unsold baby and maternity items, and even items for small ...